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Tag: Maruti Suzuki

  • Maruti Suzuki To Increase Car Prices From April

    Maruti Suzuki To Increase Car Prices From April

    Maruti Suzuki has announced that it will be increasing car prices across its model line-up from April 2021. In a regulatory filing, the country’s largest car manufacture said “Over the past year the cost of company’s vehicles has been impacted adversely due to increase in various input costs. Hence, it has become imperative for the company to pass on some impact of the above additional cost to customers through a price increase in April 2021.” Maruti Suzuki India has not announced the quantum or percentage of the price hike, but it has said that the price hike will vary for different models.

    It is quite common for Original Equipment Manufacturer or OEMs to increase vehicle prices in India at the start of the new financial year. In fact, Maruti Suzuki India had also increased its prices in January 2021, making this the second price revision in just three months. Among other OEMs, Isuzu Motor India has also announced its plan to the prices of its D-Max Regular Cab and the D-Max S-Cab in India, by ₹ 1 lakh, from April 1, 2021. And we expect a few other manufacturers to join the bandwagon soon.

    Currently, Maruti Suzuki India has 15 models in its combined line-up from Arena and Nexa brands. While its most affordable model, the Alto its priced between ₹ 3 lakh to ₹ 4.48 lakh, its flagship model, the S-Cross is priced from ₹ 8.39 lakh, going up to ₹ 12.39 lakh.

  • Maruti Suzuki Records 19.3% Production Growth In February 2021

    Maruti Suzuki Records 19.3% Production Growth In February 2021

    Maruti Suzuki India has announced production figures for the month of February 2021. India’s leading carmaker said its total production increased by 19.3 percent to 1,68,180 units in February against 1,40,933 units produced in the same month last year. The numbers recorded last month are slightly better than what the automaker posted in February 2020. The total number of passenger vehicles manufactured last month were 1,65,783 units in comparison to 1,40,370 units in the corresponding month last year, witnessing a growth of 18 percent.

    The Indo-Japanese carmaker manufactured 1,60,975 units in January 2021 as against 1,68,180 units, witnessing a marginal month-on-month (MoM) growth of 4 percent. The production of mini hatchbacks – Alto and S-Presso in February 2021 decreased marginally by 4 percent to 28,213 units as compared to 29,676 units produced in the same month last year. However, compact vehicles such as WagonR, Celerio, Swift, Dzire, Ignis, Baleno, and the Glanza saw production growth of 21.22 percent with 91,091 units against 75,142 units manufactured a year ago. The Maruti Suzuki Ciaz compact sedan saw a decline in production by 34.13 percent to 1,943 units as compared to 2,950 units manufactured in February 2020.

  • Maruti Suzuki Hikes Prices Due To Higher Costs

    Maruti Suzuki Hikes Prices Due To Higher Costs

    Maruti Suzuki India Ltd will raise prices for some car models to mitigate the impact of rising costs, the country’s largest automaker by market value said on Monday.

    The move comes after rival Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd increased prices of its personal and commercial vehicles by 1.9% this month due to higher commodity prices and input costs.

    Indian automakers were already under pressure due to costs and weak demand when the pandemic dealt a blow last March.

    Since then, carmakers have resumed operations and seen demand return during India’s festive season in October-November, but have warned of demand uncertainties ahead.

  • Maruti Suzuki Expands Its Arena Retail Channel To 450 Showrooms Across India

    Maruti Suzuki Expands Its Arena Retail Channel To 450 Showrooms Across India

    Maruti Suzuki started transforming its dealerships to a more modern and digitally integrated Arena Experience Centres back in 2017. Within two years the company has expanded to a total of 450 Arena showrooms across 323 cities in India. Maruti decided to go premium with separate Nexa dealerships for models like the Baleno, S-Cross, Ignis and the Ciaz, which helped it position the brand as an upmarket carmaker, but there was a concern that required to be addressed. Following the digitalization trend and upgrading its showrooms to suit the liking of new-age customers, the rationale behind Arena was also to make sure that its existing and small car customers don’t feel left out.

    Speaking on the new milestone, Shashank Srivastava, Executive Director (Marketing & Sales), Maruti Suzuki India said, “We launched Maruti Suzuki Arena with a strategy to transform our network and meet the expectations of offering an evolved car buying experience to the young, dynamic and contemporary Indian customers. The two-year milestone is a marquee statement to showcase our commitment towards customer satisfaction. We are delighted to celebrate over 450 Arena showrooms and we look forward to offering experiences with revolutionary design and innovative technology that are at par with global benchmarks.”

    Arena showrooms are equipped with touchscreens to give every detail to the customers before they approach towards the car to get hands on experience. Specifications, features, color options, EMI options, Accessories, etc information are available on the touchscreen panel and customers even get the option of online and offline purchase. Maruti Suzuki is also integrating iCreate configurator in Arena dealerships to offer a 360-degree view of the car. Maruti Suzuki claims that users are also active on the Arena website and it has around 4.74 million visitors every month.

  • Maruti Suzuki Inaugurates 400th Arena Showroom

    Maruti Suzuki Inaugurates 400th Arena Showroom

    Maruti Suzuki India Limited announced that it recently inaugurated its 400th Arena showroom and the milestone comes in less than two years. Maruti Suzuki Arena retail showrooms sport a modern look and are now present in 278 cities and towns in India. The company’s total sales network has crossed 2,940 showrooms covering more than 1,860 towns and cities.

    Commenting on the landmark, Shashank Srivastava, Executive Director (Marketing & Sales), Maruti Suzuki India Limited said, “We launched Maruti Suzuki Arena with a strategy to transform our network and meet expectations of young, dynamic and evolved Indian customers. It is an important step in our journey of transformation. In less than two years, we have opened the 400th ARENA showroom. This transformation is built on continuous research, listening to the customer and anticipating future trends. The effort is to align with ever-evolving customer and offer experiences at par with global benchmarks.”

    The Arena dealerships come with modern amenities and sport a large touchscreen panel that potential customers can access to check out specs, features, colors, etc. The touch panel will also offer buyers a 360 view of the car along with iCreate configurators for vehicles like the Brezza and the Swift. Owners will also be able to reload pre-configured variations of cars that they might have customized on their own computers, iPads or phones directly onto the screen here. All Maruti Suzuki showrooms across India will progressively adapt to the new ARENA for to provide enhanced customer experience

  • Maruti Suzuki Announces Service Camp For Fleet And Taxi Owners

    Maruti Suzuki Announces Service Camp For Fleet And Taxi Owners

    Maruti Suzuki has announced a service camp for Fleet and Taxi owners. The camp has been kick-started across all dealer workshops. The company says that Taxi and Fleet operators have higher running and hence their vehicles demand more frequent attention. The campaign then is targeted towards their categorical requirements. The company has advised fleet and taxi owners to visit their nearest authorized service center to avail complimentary car health check and other exciting benefits.

    A complimentary detailed vehicle health check including AC, Brakes, Clutch, Suspension, Battery will be offered. Additionally, seeing the summer vacations coming up in the month of June and July, this campaign ensures that taxi owners are ready to serve the customers during this vacation period. The company had opened the camp last year too and it saw the participation of over 48,000 participants.

  • Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza To Be Manufactured At Toyota’s Plant

    Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza To Be Manufactured At Toyota’s Plant

    It was in 2017 that Toyota and Suzuki showed interest in working together in several markets including India and two years down the line the alliance is about to bear fruit. Both companies have spelt out the areas of collaboration and it is known that Maruti Suzuki will share the Ciaz, Ertiga, Baleno and Vitara Brezza with Toyota for India and other developing markets. Maruti Suzuki has also shared that it will make use of the unutilised production capacity of Toyota’s Bengaluru plant to assemble the Vitara Brezza.

    Speaking with carandbike, R.C. Bhargava- Chairman, Maruti Suzuki India said, “Toyota has some spare capacity in their Bangalore plant. We will use that capacity to manufacture the Brezza. That saves us the investment which otherwise would have been required. We will utilise that capacity, so it’s a win-win for both of us. We get cars without making any investment and they get something to use their capacity. So we are all looking always to maximise the efficiency of the total system.”

    Toyota Kirloskar Motor’s total annual production capacity is 310,000 units. The first plant which started production in 1997 has a production capacity of 100,000 units and operates at full capacity to assemble the Innova Crysta and Fortuner. The second plant which started production in 2010 is used to manufacture Toyota’s sedan and the Etios Liva hatchback and has a production capacity of 210,000 units. Maruti Suzuki is likely to manufacture the VItara Brezza in this plant as more than half of its capacity is left unexploited.

    Maruti Suzuki has confirmed that it will phase out current diesel engines from its line-up by April 1, 2020. The company has also reaffirmed that the Vitara Brezza will soon be offered with the petrol engine and chances are that the company may introduce the in-house developed 1.5-litre DDiS 225 diesel engine if it sees substantial demand for diesel variants in the segment. Since Toyota badged Maruti Suzuki vehicles are expected only by late 2019 or early 2020, there is a possibility that Maruti will manufacture the Vitara Brezza with new engines at Toyota’s second plant in Bengaluru.

  • Maruti Suzuki Celerio And Celerio X Updated With New Safety Features

    Maruti Suzuki Celerio And Celerio X Updated With New Safety Features

    The Maruti Suzuki Celerio and the Celerio X hatchbacks are the latest offerings from the manufacturer to get additional safety kit to meet the upcoming safety norms. As part of the upgrade, the Celerio and its cross-hatch sibling now get ABS with EBD, speed alert system, driver and passenger seatbelt reminder, rear parking sensors as standard across all variants. The driver side airbag was already a standard feature on the offering. With the additional kit, the Celerio range has a slight bump in prices as well and now starts at ₹ 4.31 lakh for the base LXi trim. The Celerio X, meanwhile, starts at ₹ 4.80 lakheeco.

    Apart from the new safety features, the Maruti Suzuki Celerio and the Celerio X get no other changes, both visually and on the feature front. Power too, comes from the same 1.0-litre K-Series, three-cylinder, petrol motor tuned for 67 bhp and 90 Nm of peak torque. The motor is paired with a 5-speed manual gearbox with the AMT unit available as optional. The Celerio also comes with a factory-fitted CNG kit that is offered on the mid-trim manual version.

    The updated Celerio joins the Eeco in the latest set of Maruti Suzuki cars to get the mandatory safety features. More recently, the automaker announced the availability of the new Ciaz sedan powered by the 1.5-litre diesel engine. The new motor replaces the tried and tested 1.3-litre Fiat-sourced Multijet engine that powered nearly all of Maruti’s diesel range for over a decade. The new 1.5-litre oil burner has been developed in-house by Suzuki and is tuned to churn out 94 bhp and 225 Nm of peak torque. The motor is paired with a 6-speed gearbox and returns an ARAI claimed fuel efficiency figure of 26.82 kmpl, one of the best in the segment.

  • Maruti Suzuki Cuts Vehicle Production By Around Half

    Maruti Suzuki Cuts Vehicle Production By Around Half

    The country’s largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) cut vehicle production by around 21 per cent across its factories in March due to subdued demand. The auto major produced a total of 1,36,201 units in March, including Super Carry LCV, down 20.9 per cent from 1,72,195 units in the year-ago period, it said in a regulatory filing. The production of passenger vehicles, including Alto, Swift, Dzire and Vitara Brezza, declined by 20.6 per cent to 1,35,236 units as compared with 1,70,328 units in March 2018.

    The compact segment saw 7.5 per cent decline in production to 81,163 units, while utility vehicle witnessed a drop of 26.4 per cent to 17,719 units in March.

    However, production of vans rose by 6 per cent to 15,710 units last month as compared with 14,822 units in March 2018.

    When contacted, MSI declined to comment on the reason for decrease in production.

    In February, MSI had cut production by over 8 per cent to 1,48,959 units from 1,62,524 units produced in the year-ago period.

    In January, the company had reported a total production of 1,83,064 units, up 15.6 per cent from 1,58,396 units produced in January 2018.

    MSI’s installed manufacturing capacity at its two plants in Gurgaon and Manesar stands at 15.5 lakh units per annum. Besides, the Suzuki-owned Hansalpur (Gujarat) plant also has an installed capacity of 2.5 lakh units from the first line.

    The second production line has been commissioned at the plant, but is yet to reach its peak capacity of 2.5 lakh units per annum.

  • Maruti Suzuki Alto becomes the largest selling car in India, maintains 13 year streak

    Maruti Suzuki Alto becomes the largest selling car in India, maintains 13 year streak

    According to the latest numbers, the Maruti Suzuki Alto is yet again the best selling car in India. Leading the sales in its 13th consecutive year, the car maker registered sales of over 2.41 lakh units of the Alto in 2016-17.

    The fiscal year of 2016-17 saw the Alto contributing about 17 percent of total domestic sales of 1,443,641 units for Maruti Suzuki. The Alto also alone sells more than the total volumes sold in a year by several other passenger car makers individually in India. Out of the 2.41 lakh sales last year more than 21,000 units of the car were exported countries like Sri Lanka, Chile, Philippines, and Uruguay.

    Maruti brought the Alto to India back in September 2000 and in its existence of nearly 17 years, the car maker has not only improved it but has sold multiple variants. It is said that the the car’s success has been due to two reasons.

    Firstly, Alto has the largest number of variants among the entry level hatchbacks with different fuel, transmission and engine options. Secondly, Maruti Suzuki has a vast distribution network.

    “Alto is the No. 1 best-selling brand for 13 consecutive years. This unique distinction is a reflection of Alto’s popularity. I am delighted that Alto once again dominates the car industry in 2016-17,” said RS Kalsi, Executive Director (M&S) at Maruti Suzuki.

    “Maruti Suzuki’s unmatched nationwide service network, guaranteed performance and lower maintenance cost, Alto is a natural choice of the customers across India. We are thankful to all our customers for their continued support to Brand Alto. Alto K10 with AGS is the most affordable two pedal technology in the entry segment,” he said.